Friday, 17 April 2009

The Number 8 Route

14 April 2009

Following the grey weekend some of us had had, bright sunshine greeted Linda and me at Victoria and we climbed onto the Number 8 at about 10.25. We swept along Grosvenor Place and round Hyde Park Corner, passing the Australian War Memorial and the New Zealand War Memorial Turning into Mayfair was a bit of a surprise, as we had thought that only chauffeur driven mercs - not buses - patrolled those streets, but Berkeley Square was looking lovely, we soon reached Oxford Street and travelled the rest of its length, once again impressed that the Photographers’ Gallery actually gets its name announced on the buses: other museums on the whole don’t. We travelled eastward for some time, seeing a cyclist on a recumbent as well as passing the statue to Rowland Hill. On past Liverpool Street Station, and a huge construction project along the Bethnal Green Road (could it be Crossrail? Or a new road?) We were impressed by Peach the Estate Agent with painted spiders and bugs on its strange office and by some smart retirement homes along the – very straight - Roman Road. By now into the part of London that is intersected by a number of waterways, including the Hertford Union Canal, we were on the A12 for a brief while before arriving at Bow Church at 11.40.

Our return trip is for another time, but we must mention the charming man at Bromley by Bow tube station who let us use their staff loo.

The Project

In March 2009, we 'ladies who bus', Linda, Mary and Jo, decided to travel every London bus route from end to end. That project was completed in 2014 and we moved on to visiting every Museum in London. Now we are going back to the buses, to see what has changed in the intervening years.